Custom · Pro Race · Nov 05, 2021

FUNDACION MARCELINO OLIVER IN THE VUELTA COLOMBIA FEMENINA

The past 28th of Septeber, the sixth edition of the “Vuelta a Colombia Femenina” started where we were plased to be represented by the team Soltec Team IMR.

Thanks to (Soltec-Team IMR), the Fundación Marcelino Oliver and GSPORT where able to atend the competition. This competition had 6 journeys and it was a UCI 2.2 classification. From the 170 athletes that started the race, the ones that finished it were 72. They cycled for around 524,20km distributed between the 6 journeys.

As remarkable results we have Natalia Franco (Soltec-Team IMR) with an 8th place in the first stage (85.30km) Villavicencio – Puerto López (Alto de Mengua), a journey with a finish on the hights with 0,8 km y 5,3%. After a hard fall in the last 100m before the finish line, she made a comeback some days later and took the spotlight with a sixth place on the fourth stage (117.1km), a position which she manteined until the last stages of the competition.

This 2021 edition was supported by lots of fans, who went outside and filed the streets of Colombia to cheer for their cyclists. At the end the pódium was composed by the Venezuelan cyclist Lilibeth del Carmen Chacón García of the Merquimia-Proyecta Team, the Chilean Aranza Villalón of the Avinal-Sistecredito-GW team and the Ecuadorian Miryam Núñez of the Liro Sport-El Faro team.

Here are some words said by Natalia Franco, cyclist of the Vuelta a Colombia from the team (Soltec-Team IMR), she said this in the podcast ‘Female Singular’ from Radio MARCA in favor of Colombian women's cycling:

“The colombian women are good world class cyclists, we just need more opportunities to prove it.”

Normaly to make it they need leave their country and go to a different one where they have the posibility to succed as cyclists like Natalia who left to go to the USA.

“I got ofered a scolarship to study in Colorado and at the same time be able to train cycling .”.

The Colombian studied sports psychology and currently combines her professional activity with her training to prepare the cycling events in which she competes.

“We need to take advantage of the oportunities that are given to us so we can get the people to know us and to show that the womens can race at an elite level to, that we can also represent a brand and generate money for those brand.”